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NASA’s Voyager 2 Spacecraft Sends Back New Data on Interstellar Space

Nov 5, 2019 by News Staff

In November 2018, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft became only the second human-made object to cross the outer edge of the Sun’s heliosphere, the bubble...

The Niemitz’s tarsier (Tarsius niemitzi) from Malenge Island, Sulawesi. Image credit: Myron Shekelle.

New Species of Tarsier Discovered

Nov 4, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has discovered a new species of tarsier living on the Togean Islands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Niemitz’s...

On October 12, 2019, Hubble observed the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov at a distance of approximately 261 million miles from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles.

Water Detected in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Nov 2, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have detected the signature of vaporized water in the coma of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, also known as C/2019 Q4. On October 12, 2019,...

An artist’s imagining of an ancient rhinoceros splashing through a stream next to turtles and fish in the Yukon. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Rhinoceroses Lived in Yukon Territory 8-9 Million Years Ago

Nov 1, 2019 by News Staff

The fossil tooth fragments from extinct rhinoceroses that lived 8-9 million years ago have been found in Canada’s Yukon Territory. An artist’s imagining...

An artist’s rendition of a giant star in orbit around a low-mass black hole. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

New Class of Low-Mass Black Holes May Exist, Astronomers Say

Nov 1, 2019 by News Staff

In a paper published in the November 1, 2019 issue of the journal Science, a team of astronomers offers a new way to search for stellar-mass black holes,...

An artistic rendering of Aniakchak National Monument in the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Karen Carr / Fiorillo et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223471.

New Dinosaur Footprints Found in Alaska

Oct 31, 2019 by News Staff

Footprints of duck-billed dinosaurs, armored dinosaurs and a tyrannosaur discovered in Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska, shed new light...

Super-Neptune Discovered Just 12 Light-Years Away

Oct 30, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered a super-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a star in the binary system Gliese 15. An artist’s impression of two exoplanets orbiting...

Van Moerkercke et al made the surprising discovery that a plant’s reaction to rain is close to one of panic. Image credit: Anthony, Inspired Images.

Plants’ Reaction to Rain is Close to Panic, Study Shows

Oct 30, 2019 by News Staff

Complex chemical signals are triggered when water lands on a plant to help it prepare for the dangers of rain, according to a new study published in the...

Ancient humans. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans Traced to Southern Africa

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

The earliest ancestors of anatomically modern Homo sapiens emerged in a region south of the Zambezi River in Botswana, Africa, according to a new analysis...

This image, taken by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the main-belt asteroid Hygiea. Image credit: ESO / P. Vernazza et al / MISTRAL algorithm / ONERA / CNRS.

Astronomers Measure Size and Shape of Main-Belt Asteroid Hygiea

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

Hygiea is the fourth largest main belt asteroid and the only known asteroid whose surface composition appears similar to that of the dwarf planet Ceres....

Diversity within the family Viridiplantae. Image credit: Leebens-Mack et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1693-2.

Researchers Generate Gene Sequences for 1,124 Plant Species, Illuminate One Billion Years of Evolution

Oct 28, 2019 by News Staff

As part of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes (1KP) Initiative, an international consortium of scientists has sequenced transcriptomes — the set...

SOFIA Spots Debris from Catastrophic Collision between Two Rocky Exoplanets

Oct 25, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have observed an unusually warm, dusty debris disk around BD +20 307,...

Rats Taught How to Drive Tiny Cars

Oct 24, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Rats can learn the complex task of navigating a rodent-operated vehicle (ROV) to a desired area, according to new research from the University of Richmond. Crawford...

An artist’s reconstruction of the Devonian-period Sosnogorsk lagoon just before a storm. Image credit: Mikhail Shekhanov / Ukhta Local Museum.

Devonian Tetrapod Had Crocodile-Like Lifestyle

Oct 24, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossils of a new type of early tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) in the Komi Republic. Dubbed Parmastega aelidae, the...

Freshly-Synthesized Strontium Detected in Neutron Star Merger

Oct 23, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have detected a freshly made heavy element, strontium, in the aftermath of GW170817, a merger of two...

Massive Star-Forming Galaxy Spotted in Early Universe

Oct 23, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered faint traces of a huge dust-obscured star-forming galaxy never seen before,...

A male white bellbird (Procnias albus). Image credit: Anselmo d’Affonseca, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia.

White Bellbird Has Loudest Songs in Avian Kingdom: Study

Oct 22, 2019 by News Staff

A duo of ornithologists from the United States and Brazil has recorded the loudest bird song (up to 125.4 db) ever documented, made by males of the white...

Stormquakes offshore North America and seismic stations from 2006 to 2015. The located stormquakes are shown as the red circles, and the seismic stations are shown as triangles. Due to the location uncertainties, some of the apparent stormquake locations are beyond the coastlines. The yellow contours show regions where stormquakes were detected. The orange contour shows a comparison region offshore Mexico that has been struck by hurricanes but without excitation of stormquakes. The insert shows earthquakes (blue dots) reported in the International Seismological Centre catalog with magnitudes greater than 3 and shallower than 40 km from 2006 to 2015. Image credit: Fan et al, doi: 10.1029/2019GL084217.

New Geophysical Phenomenon Discovered: Stormquakes

Oct 22, 2019 by News Staff

Energetic storms generate strong ocean waves, which can interact with shallow seafloor features located near the edge of continental shelves known as ocean...

An aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). Image credit: David Haring.

Scientists Find Pseudothumbs in Aye-Aye’s Hands

Oct 22, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from North Carolina State University and CNRS have found that aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) possess pseudothumbs...